Inferring the stabilization effects of SARS-CoV-2 variants on the binding with ACE2 receptor.

ABSTRACT: As the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic continues to spread, several variants of the virus, with mutations distributed all over the viral genome, are emerging. While most of the variants present mutations having little to no effects at the phenotypic level, some of these variants are spreading at a rate that suggests they may present a selective advantage. In particular, these rapidly spreading variants present specific mutations on the spike protein. These observations call for an urgent need to characterize the effects of these variants' mutations on phenotype features like contagiousness and antigenicity. With this aim, we performed molecular dynamics simulations on a selected set of possible spike variants in order to assess the stabilizing effect o

SUBMITTER: Miotto M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8738749 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature